Drugs openly sold in Bagram, complain residents

CHARIKAR (PAN): Drugs are being openly sold in some shops of the Bagram district in central Parwan province, locals complained on Friday, asking the authorities to curb the practice.

Provincial officials also acknowledged some vendors were involved in the illicit commerce, but the police chief rejected the complaint as a propaganda campaign.

Bashir Ahmad, a resident of the Noda locality on the outskirts of the district centre, told Pajhwok Afghan News: “The business of drugs including heroin is rampant in Mahigeri, Pakhan, Dahn Maidan, Jaffarkhel and Torkman area. But the government has taken no steps to control it.”

Imam Din, hailing from Dahn Maidan area, said opium was smuggled into his village from other districts. Youth ran the risk of becoming addicts due to the easy availability of drugs in the area, he feared. He accused the department concerned of failing to adopt measures to prevent the business.

Parwan Counternarcotics Director Sher Aqa Talash admitted some shopkeepers were doing the illicit business in Bagram. He said youth could be prevented from addiction once his department worked out a comprehensive strategy against the sale of drugs.

Nearly 250 addicts had been rehabilitated after being admitted to the main Parwan hospital, the director said. Unfortunately, many of them had relapsed into addiction, he regretted.

But Maj. Gen. Abdul Rahman Sarjang, the provincial police chief, denied drugs were being sold in Bagram shops. “We have raided several shops in Noda area but could not recover drugs or other illicit stuff.”

Abdul Haq, a shopkeeper in Noda, also rejected concerns about the sale of drugs in local shops as unfounded.

According to the Ministry of Counternarcotics, around 90 percent of opium is cultivated in nine southern and western provinces. Most of the areas are under militants’ control.